Webinars:  A variety of free teleconferences on a variety of subjects are available at no cost. Investigate those that interest you. We frequently offer an opportunity to join us for these teleconferences in the IRC though you can certainly attend at home or in your office.

• CSU Accessible Technology Initiative:  “Meet the Experts”  “How Students Use Assistive Technologies” with Melissa Repa, Sacramento State & Scott Kupferman, Sonoma State on Thursday, December 10, 2009 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM will introduce you to the types of technologies students are using and provide demonstrations of some devices. https://csuelm.calstate.edu:443/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1257879290338
• Campus Technology, an organization that produces a  magazine and a conference that specializes in technology use in higher education has several topics available at http://campustechnology.com/webcasts/list/webinars.aspx The most interesting to me is the Virtual Conference on December 3 from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM  featuring Five Elements of Exceptional Technology Enhanced Learning facilitated by Stephen Laster, Chief Information Officer, Harvard Business School http://www.campustechnology.com/virtual
• WestEd’s SchoolsMovingUp: “Assessing 21st Century Skills to Maximize Student Readiness for Higher Education and Careers,” on Tuesday, November 24, from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. See the list of the webinars at http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/cs/smu/print/htdocs/smu/webinars.htm

Tips on Good Questions for Class Discussion: Ask yourself what you want to achieve with your questions before you formulate the questions. The questioning technique will justify the purpose.  Mix the question types to achieve your communication purpose. Be flexible with different individuals.

Types of questions
Open ended questions

• Best for: Soliciting longer and freer response in forms of opinion, feelings, thoughts, etc.
• Examples: What do you think about …, How would you describe…, Can you identify an application for this …?, etc.
  

Probing questions

• Best for: Guiding students to think critically; investigating the background or learning progress, etc.
• Examples: Why do you think method A is more effective even though …? When will step 2 replaces step 1?  Could you give me an example?,  etc.
  

Divergent questions

• Best for: promoting thinking-out-of-a-box, inquiry, independent thinking, etc.
• Examples: Imagine if I took method A instead of method B, then what would happen? What if…? What would you do next if both methods are proven invalid?, etc.
  

Closed ended questions

• Best for: Confirming understanding before asking another type of question; bring to closure; etc.
• Examples: Do you agree with method A? Can we now move on to the next section now that we have reviewed the highlights? , etc.
  

Rhetorical questions

• Best for: Making statements to reinforce consensus on certain messages.
• Examples: Wasn’t the prep for the exam a worthwhile experience? Don’t you think the exercises helped you to remember the important points from your reading?, etc.
  

Read more about encouraging good classroom discussion online on the Center for Faculty Development web site at http://www.sjsu.edu/cfd/docs/conductQandA.pdf

Highlighted Campus Technology Resources:

Elluminate Live! is an extremely flexible web conferencing tool for which the campus has an unlimited site license. Some effective faculty uses of Elluminate include:

• presenting information in an online, blended or face-to-face class
• meeting of student groups (especially convenient for our students who work, have family responsibilities and/or live off campus)
• guest speaker presentations
• holding class when the faculty member is off campus at a conference
• providing an opportunity for students to attend class despite being ill, at a sport team event, etc.
• conducting office hours for students who find it difficult to get to campus at those times
• archiving a class for student review purposes
• “pushing” a web site, PowerPoint, or any application to student laptops
• conducting a poll during class

Mei Fang, instructional designer is offering a class in Elluminate on Tuesday, Nov 3 from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM in IRC 210. Tutorials are also available at http://www.elluminate.com/support/training/ Faculty and Staff who are interested in having an account, may contact Alfred Eclipse, Academic Technology Services Coordinator,  at 924-2677 or by email to  Alfred.Eclipse@sjsu.edu.

iTunesU@ San Jose State University San Jose State University is the only CSU in iTunesU and one of the very few universities to offer transcripts or captioning for all podcasts. Access iTunesU@San Jose State University at http://www.sjsu.edu/itunes. The free application, iTunes, available for both Windows and Macintosh computers, is needed for access. Download iTunes at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/. Contact Mary Fran Breiling, Director, iTunesU @San Jose State University at maryfran.breiling@sjsu.edu, if you are interested in posting content on iTunesU@San Jose State University.

MovCaptioner The University has a site license for MovCaptioner, a simple to use program that allows for the captioning of multimedia projects.  A tutorial for MovCaptioner can be found at http://www.synchrimedia.com/tutorials.html. Please contact cfd@sjsu.edu for the serial number,  if you are interested in using this resource.

Wikis The University has a license for PBWorks for wiki creation. To learn more about wikis, access the 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf created by Educause’s Electronic Learning Initiative. This resource describes wikis, provides examples, includes implications for teaching, etc. Please contact cfd@sjsu.edu for the serial number and directions for use,  if you are interested in using this resource.